Kamran Abbasi
This team needs a coach
Pakistan have an ideal opportunity to appoint somebody who can nurture the talent available and work in partnership with the captain
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
The question is simple to put but hard to answer: Does the Pakistan cricket team need a coach? Ramiz Raja and Shahid Afridi, an unusual alliance, believe not. Pakistan can do just as well without. Once you are an international cricketer what coaching do you require?
When Pakistan won the World Cup in 1992, Imran's Tigers had the benefit of coach Intikhab Alam. Seven years later, when Wasim Akram lead Pakistan to another World Cup final, Mushtaq Mohammad, another legspinner, was in charge of fielding practice. Yet it isn't clear what either of those two coaches added? Imran and Wasim were all dominant.
Since then Pakistan tried a low-key international coach (Richard Pybus), a low-key home coach (Mudassar Nazar), a high-profile home coach (Javed Miandad), and a high-profile international coach (Bob Woolmer). On objective measures of success, Woolmer was the most successful helping Pakistan gain high positions in the Test and One-day rankings, although the last year of his charge was a disaster. Even Woolmer's malleable personality found obstacles within the team, a problem that Javed Miandad--who I once imagined would be the ideal coach for Pakistan--nurtured all too easily.
Full postA better beginning than expected
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
A clean sweep of this series would have been an unimaginable result--and so it turned out. Sri Lanka are a formidable one-day team even without their premier bowler. This series was a trip too far but today they roused themselves to give Tom Moody a happy send off.
Pakistan made mistakes. Malik made mistakes. There is much work to be done to polish the skills of this young team. But nobody should have expected a perfect performance so early. Each new formation requires some time to settle. New responsibilities bring new roles, and new roles take a little getting used to. If these players are to challenge the world's best they will have to advance their skills quickly.
Full postWelcome back Team Pakistan
When Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, and Mohammad Asif gathered to discuss how to bowl and set a field to Mahela Jayawardene it struck me that this was a sight Pakistan cricket has been missing
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
It might be the enthusiasm of youth. It might be a flash in the pan. It might be a false dawn. But when Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, and Mohammad Asif gathered to discuss how to bowl and set a field to Mahela Jayawardene it struck me that this was a sight Pakistan cricket has been missing. The team huddle is all well and good but the team think-tank is a far more valuable concept.
Australia, as usual, are the premier exponents of the think-tank approach. Ricky Ponting has grown into a formidable leader but his lieutenants, Messrs Warne, Gilchrist, and Hussey--or anybody else with a bright idea for that matter--will not hesitate to have a word of wisdom with their captain or the bowler. Gilchrist, for example, will often hatch a plan in the middle of an over. Even if it is a chat about the next episode of Neighbours it puts the batsman on edge.
Under Inzamam-ul Haq the Pakistan think-tank had ebbed away. All thinking resided within his tank-like frame. The huddle, an opportunity to impart instructions and urge common purpose, reigned supreme. But I'm refreshed by the return of the think-tank. It shows that Shoaib Malik is willing to debate and listen. He must have the final say, of course, but no individual has a monopoly on the best ideas.
Full postInzy takes the rap
The Pakistan cricket board of inquiry has delivered its verdict: It was all Inzy’s fault
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
The Pakistan cricket board of inquiry has delivered its verdict: It was all Inzy’s fault. Yes there were a few nuances like the board itself messed up preparations for the World Cup, an amusing conclusion since sitting judge Salim Altaf was one of those who presided over the campaign. And, as is traditional of Pakistani inquiries of this nature, there was no evidence of match fixing or spot fixing or fixing anything in particular.
It was thoroughly decent of the inquiry to get the sordid business of the World Cup out of the way before Pakistan toss off against Sri Lanka. Now Shoaib Malik’s team can think about the job of resurrecting Pakistan as a competitive cricket team—which is exactly what they were a year ago.
The rot set in during the tour of England when Inzy’s troublesome ways were being openly discussed by people close to the team. The cricket board, of course, should have managed Inzamam to maximise the chances of Pakistan winning the World Cup, instead Dr Ashraf spent his time maximising his own chances of remaining chairman of the board.
Full postAfridi's joy crowns Malik's debut
A tournament in Abu Dhabi may never rank as one of the most important in international history but this one does matter greatly in the bruised world of Pakistan cricket
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
A tournament in Abu Dhabi may never rank as one of the most important in international history but this one does matter greatly in the bruised world of Pakistan cricket. There are many reasons why we shouldn't read too much into this victory but we can enjoy it.
The best part for me was that a bunch of young players realised that their time had come. The route to success is tortuous and wildly undulating but if Pakistan can consistently muster today's spirit they will keep their fans with them. It has been a long time since a Pakistan team looked so full of energy--and if any Australians or South Africans were watching, yes this was energetic for the boys in green.
But the crowning glory was the adrenaline rush of Shahid Afridi's innings and the joy it returned to fans and players alike. Afridi, the man who could have been King, began the Age of Malik with a show of daring and unity that was a symbol of the team's spirit. Let's hope it continues.
Full postRedemption comes cheap, anger comes quickly
This week Pakistan cricket begins a new era
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
This week Pakistan cricket begins a new era. It might be a new era that begins without a coach, the fastest bowler, and the presumed captain-in-waiting. It might begin with a rookie captain and a novice deputy but it is a new era that begins with guarded optimism—as every new era should.
Pakistan cricket is a fragile creature that carries the hopes and dreams of millions around the globe, sometimes fulfills them, but too often lurches from one disaster to the next. But as my fellow writer Nauman Niaz put it in a comment in response to a previous blog, redemption comes cheap.
Today we stand in optimism behind Shoaib Malik, an intellectual lightweight—see Nadia Khan’s interview if you disagree—but an enthusiastic heavyweight. Many of us dare to believe that this time it will be different, youth will sweep away the anti-professionalism of Big Inzy’s era. We have gifted redemption for nothing in return. The rest of the world—including Pakistan fans of the pragmatic school—believes us redemption-comes-cheap wallas to be mad fools. And so be it—it’s more fun that way.
Full postA vice too early
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Mohammad Asif, the McGrath of Sheikhapura, has been appointed Pakistan's vice-captain. This is a bold move by the PCB, who have now firmly stated their intention to invest in a new generation of Pakistan cricketers. Already, Asif has shown himself to be an outstanding fast bowler, somebody whose career might reach astronomical heights.
He is a feisty bowler with an engaging on-field persona. But just as early he has fallen into the snare of nandrolone, inadvertently if we are to believe his protestations - and there is no reason not to. A WADA inquiry hangs over him. If I were working for WADA I would consider only one thing worse than a suspect sportsman playing international sport, and that would be a suspect sportsman in a position of responsibility.
Full postThe moments belong to Sri Lanka
Australia have been awesome but the moments have belonged to Sri Lanka
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
When Malcolm Speed admits something isn't right you can bet your life that it's horribly wrong. After spending most of the last few weeks defending this turgid tournament, he now accepts that the format is too long. It is possible to create a format that incorporates associate members, gives the better teams less chance of being hijacked, and is done and dusted in thirty days. It took me five minutes to think of such a format, and I'm sure anybody reading this blog could come up with something similar.
I've seen every World Cup so far and I have no doubt that this is the most tedious ever--and not because Pakistan were knocked out. The semi-finalists were decided too quickly, as were the semi-finals themselves. The business end of the tournament hasn't done the business. A collaboration between the ICC and the local organising committee has managed to alienate fans and kill the atmosphere. The people of the Caribbean deserved better.
Full postA strategy for seniors
One solution to a tussle between seniors is the "Two captain strategy"
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Despite public proclamations of unity, the Pakistan board (PCB) will have to find a way of keeping their venerable "seniors" on board. One solution to a tussle between seniors is the "Two captain strategy" (one in one-day cricket and the other in Test cricket). But the PCB has sensibly concluded Malik can do both, in which case I propose the "Two vice-captain strategy." In a nutshell, it goes something like this:
1 An age-old technique for reining in a delinquent elder is to give him some responsibility.
Full postMalik rises above hierarchy
Later this week the PCB is expected to confirm the rise of Shoaib Malik
Kamran Abbasi
25-Feb-2013
Later this week the PCB is expected to confirm the rise of Shoaib Malik. His appointment as Pakistan captain will be a welcome change to the tried and failed method of handing the job to the most senior player.
Younis Khan's perplexing decision to snub the captaincy left the PCB with a testing decision. In the seniors corner, Mohammad Yousuf was expressing his willingness to lead his country. In the less-seniors corner, Shoaib Malik was keeping quiet. Elsewhere, Shahid Afridi (with some justification) and Abdul Razzaq (with no justification) were probably wondering why they'd blown it. Salman Butt might have begun to picture himself as Pakistan's first non-playing captain. And Shoaib Akhtar will have been regretting nandrolone more than ever.
Full post